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The Old South Work. 



B\- EDWIN D. MEAD. 



'The extent of the obUgation of Boston and of America to 
Mary Hemenway for her devotion to the historical and politi- 
cal education of our young people during the closing period of 
our century is something which we only now begin to properly 
appreciate, when she has left us and we view her work as a 
whole. I do not think it is too much to say that she has done 
more than any other single individual in the same time to 
promote popular interest in American history and to promote 
intelligent patriotism. 

Mrs. Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympa- 
thies were as broad as the world ; but she was a great patriot, 
and she was pre-eminently that. She was an enthasiastic 
lover of freedom and of democracy, and there was not a day of 
her life that she did not think of the great price with which 
our own heritage of freedom had been purchased. Her pa- 
triotism was loyalty. She bad a deep feeling of personal 
gratitude to the founders of New England and the fathers of 
the Republic. She had a reverent pride in our position of 
leadership in the history and movement of modern democracy ; 
and she had a consuming zeal to keep the nation strong and 
pure and worthy of its best traditions, and to kindle this zeal 
among the young people of the nation. With all her great 
enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite 
woman. She wasted no time nor strength in vague generali- 
ties, either of speech or action. Others might long for the 
time when the kingdom of God should cover the earth as the 
waters cover the sea, and she longed for it ; but, while others 
longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring 
that corner of God's world in which she was set into con- 
formity with the laws of God, — and this by every means in 
her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better clothes 
and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching 
people to value health and respect and train their bodies, by 
inciting people to read better books and love better music and 
better pictures and be interested in more important things. 
Others might long for the parliament of man and the federa- 
tion of the world, and so did she ; but, while others longed, 



she devoted herself to doing what she could to make this na- 
tion, for which she was particularly responsible, fitter for the 
federation when it comes. The good patriot, to her thinking, 
was not the worse cosmopolite. The good State for which she 
worked was a good Massachusetts ; and her chief interest, 
while others talked municipal reform, was to make a better 
Boston, 

American history, people used to say, is not interesting ; 
and they read about Ivry and Marathon and Zama, about Pym 
and Pepin and Pericles, the ephors, the tribunes and the House 
of Lords. American history, said Mrs. Hemenway, is to us 
the most interesting and the most important history in the 
world, if we would only open our eyes to it and look at it in 
the right w^ay ; and I will help people to look at it in the 
right way. Our very archaeology, she said, is of the highest 
interest ; and through the researches of Mr. Gushing and Dr. 
Fewkes and others among the Zunis and the Moquis, sustained 
by her at the cost of thousands of dollars, she did an immense 
work to make interest in it general. Boston, the Puritan 
city, — how proud she was of its great line of heroic men, from 
VVinthrop and Cotton and Eliot and Harvard to Sumner and 
Garrison and Parker and Phillips ! How proud she was that 
Harry Vane once trod its soil and here felt himself at home ! 
How she loved Hancock and Otis and Warren and Revere 
and the great men of the Boston town meetings — above all, 
Samuel Adams, the very mention of whose name always 
thrilled her, and whose portrait was the only one save Wash- 
ington's which hung on the oaken walls of her great dining- 
room 1 The Boston historians, Prescott, Motley, Parkman ; 
the Boston poets, Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, — each word 
of every one she treasured. She would have enjoyed and 
would have understood, as few others, that recent declaration 
of Charles Francis Adams's, that the founding of Boston was 
fraught with consequences to the world not less important 
than those of the founding of Rome. All other Boston men 
and women must see Boston as she saw it, — that was her 
high resolve. They must know and take to heart that they 
were citizens of no mean city ; they must be roused to the 
sacredness of their inheritance, that so they might be roused 
to the nobility of their citizenship and the greatness of their 
duty. It was with this aim and with this spirit, not with the 
spirit of the mere antiquarian, that Mrs Hemenway inaugurated 



the Old South Work. History with her was for use, — the 
history of Boston, the history of New England, the history of 
America. 

In the first place, she saved the Old South Meeting-house. 
She contributed $100,000 toward the fund necessary to prevent 
its destruction. It is hard for us to realize, so much deeper is 
the reverence for historic places which the great anniversaries 
of these late years have done so much to beget, that in our very 
centennial year, 1876, the Old South Meeting-house, the most 
sacred and historic structure in Boston or in the country, was 
in danger of destruction. The old Hancock house, for which, 
could it be restored, Boston would to-day pour out unlimited 
treasure, had gone, with but feeble protest, only a dozen years 
before; and but for Mrs. Hemenv/ay the Old South Meeting- 
house would have gone in 1876. She saved it; and, having 
saved it, she determined that it should not stand an idle monu- 
ment, the tomb of the great ghosts, but a living temple of pa- 
triotism. She knew the didactic power of great associations; 
and every one who in these twenty years has been in the habit 
of going to the lectures and celebrations at the Old South 
knows with what added force many a lesson has been taught 
within the walls which heard the tread of Washington and which 
still echo the words of Samuel Adams and James Otis and 
Joseph Warren. 

The Old South lectures have proved that our American his- 
tory can be presented to our young people in such a way as 
shall awaken their deepest interest and make them want to 
come again and again for more and more ; they have shown to 
those who have been concerned in the management how broad 
and rich and varied are the fields into which the young students 
may be led ; and they have made all serious people who have 
attended the lectures feel their important practical bearing, how 
close the relation of history to politics, and how potent an in- 
strumentality such lectures may be made for the promotion of 
good citizenship. Not every city has its Old South Meeting- 
house, with the wealth of association which, as already said, 
lends such re-enforcement to the impressiveness of meetings 
where the names of Winthrop and Franklin and Samuel Adams 
are upon the tongue ; not everywhere can broad subjects be 
rooted in local history and illustrated by local landmarks as in 
Massachusetts, and especially in Boston, with their great line 
of Colonial and Revolutionary traditions, — and the utility of 



such local interests, their stimulation to the imagination, their 
provocation to thought, cannot be valued too highly ; not every- 
where can such munificence be hoped for as that which has 
made possible the interesting experiment at the Old South 
Meeting-house. But there is no American city where boys and 
girls and parents and teachers cannot be gathered together in 
some place where the spirit of Winthrop and Adams and Wash- 
ington and Lincoln will be in their midst ; there is no Ameri- 
can city which is not a joint heir to our national history, nor 
whose local history is not ten times more interesting and didac- 
tic, ten times more closely connected with broad general move- 
ments, than those suppose who do not think about it ; and 
there is no city without citizens quite able to support, and 
teachers, ministers and lawyers quite able to prepare, series of 
lectures which shall do the work which it is the aim of the Old 
South lectures to do in Boston, of awakening in the young 
people, who are so quickly to control the nation, a true sense 
of their indebtedness to the present and the future, by awaken- 
ing in them a true sense of their indebtedness to the past. 

The machinery of the Old South Work has been the simplest. 
That is why any city, if it has public spirited people to sustain 
it, can easily carry on such work. That is why work like it, 
owing its parentage and impulse to it, has been undertaken in 
Providence and Brooklyn and Philadelphia, in Indianapolis and 
Madison and Chicago and elsewhere. That is why men and 
women all over the country, organized in societies or not, w^ho 
are really in earnest about good citizenship, can do much to 
promote similar work in the cities and towns in which they live. 
We have believed at the Old South Meeting-house in the powder 
of the spoken word and the printed page. We have had lect- 
ures, and we have circulated historical leaflets. 

What is an Old South lecture course like? That is what 
many teachers and many young people who are not conver- 
sant with the work will like to know. What kind of subjects 
do we think will attract and instruct bright young people of 
fifteen or sixteen, set them to reading in American history, 
make them more interested in their country, and make better 
citizens of them ? That question cannot, perhaps, be better 
answered than by giving one or two Old South lecture programs. 
We will take the course for the summer of 1894 and the course for 
1899. The course for 1894, for instance, was devoted to " The 
Founders of New England " ; and the eight lectures were : — 



5 

" William Brewster, the Elder of Plymouth," by Rev. Edward Everett 
Hale; "WilHam Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth," by Rev. William 
Elliot Griffis; "John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts," by Hon. 
Frederic T. Greenhalge; "John Harvard, and the Founding of Harvard 
College," by Mr. William R. Thayer; "John Eliot, the Apostle to the 
Indians," by Rev. James De Normandie; "John Cotton, the Minister of 
Boston," by Rev. John Cotton Brooks; "Roger Williams, the Founder of 
Rhode Island," by President E. Benjamin Andrews; "Thomas Hooker, 
the Founder of Connecticut," by Rev. Joseph H. Twichell. 

It will be noticed that the several subjects in this course were 
presented by representative men, men especially identified in 
one way or another with their special themes. Thus Edward 
Everett Hale, who spoke on Elder Brewster, is certainly our 
greatest New England " elder " to-day. Dr. Griffis, whose book 
on " Brave Little Holland " was being read at the time by so 
many of our young people, is an authority in Pilgrim history, 
having since prepared a work on " The Pilgrim Fathers in Eng- 
land, Holland, and America." It was singularly fortunate that 
the Governor of Massachusetts at the time could speak 
upon Governor Winthrop. Mr. Thayer is the editor of the 
Har7'ard Graduates^ Magazine and a special student of John 
Harvard's life and times. Mr. De Normandie is John Eliot's 
successor as minister of the old church in Roxbury. Rev. 
John Cotton Brooks is a lineal descendant of John Cotton, and 
has preached in his pulpit in St. Botolph's Church at old Boston 
in England. President Andrews of Brown University was cer- 
tainly the very best person to come from Rhode Island to tell 
of that little State's great founder. Mr. Twichell, the eminent 
Hartford minister, was the chosen orator at the celebration of 
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of 
Connecticut, in 1889. With such a hst of speakers as this, 
this course upon "The Founding of New England" could not 
help being a brilliant and valuable course ; and so it proved. 

The year 1899 was the centennial of the death of Washing- 
ton. The memory of Washington is always kept green at the 
Old South. Each Washington's Birthday celebration is made 
a means of emphasizing anew his services and character, 
and this celebration, when the Old South prizes are always 
awarded, is one of the most stirring events of the Old South 
year; but in this centennial year the entire summer course was 
devoted to " The Life and Influence of Washington," the sev- 
eral lectures being : — 



«' Washington in the Revolution," by Mr. John Fiske ; " Washington and 
the Constitution," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale ; "Washington as President 
of the United States," by Rev. Albert E. Winship; "Washington the True 
Expander of the RepubHc," by Mr. Edwin D. Mead; " Washington's In- 
terest in Education," by Hon. Alfred S. Roe; "The Men who worked with 
Washington," by Mrs. Alice Ereeman Palmer; "Washington's Farewell 
Address," by Rev. FrankUn Hamilton; and " What the World has Thought 
and Said of Washington," by Professor Edwin A. Grosvenor. 

How admirable a thing it would be if there could be given in 
every city and town in the country during this Washington cen- 
tennial time such lectures upon the life and influence of Wash- 
ington ! A hundred towns could do nothing better than adopt 
bodily this Old South program. Few places can plan to use 
these lecturers ; although Brooklyn for many years regularly, 
and other places occasionally, have arranged to have each sum- 
mer's course of Old South lectures repeated for their people by 
the Old South lecturers. Most places will use their own people 
— ministers, lawyers, editors, teachers — as their lecturers; 
and it is better that they should. But many should be glad to 
follow this Old South program, and in connection could be 
used many of the Old South leaflets relating to Washington. 
The Old South leaflets and lecture programs, good for us, are 
also, it is a pleasure to find, meeting needs like ours in a hun- 
dred places. It is not for a Boston public only that we work. 

The Old South lectures — thanks to Mrs. Hemenway's gen- 
erosity, still active by provision of her will — are entirely free 
to all young people. Tickets are distributed among the boys 
and girls of the public schools by their masters — the masters 
and superintendent of the Boston schools having always 
been the glad and efficient co-operators in the Old South work 
in all its branches. Tickets are also sent to all persons under 
twenty, applying in their own handwriting to the Directors of 
the Old South Work, at the Old South Meeting-house, and en- 
closing stamp. Older people can come if they wish to, and a 
great many do come ; but these pay for their tickets. It is 
understood that the lectures are designed for the young people. 
We tell our lecturers to aim at the bright boy and girl of fifteen, 
and forget that there is anybody else in the audience. If the 
lecturer hits them, he is sure to interest everybody; if he does 
not, he is a failure as an Old South lecturer. We tell them to 
be graphic and picturesque, — dullness, however learned, is the 
one thing which young people will not pardon ; we tell them to 
speak without notes, — if they do not always satisfy themselves 



quite so well, they please everybody else a great deal better ; 
and we tell them never to speak over an hour, — we pardon 
fifty-nine minutes, but we do not pardon sixty-one. Persons 
starting work like the Old South Work in other cities would do 
well to remember these simple rules. Any persons looking in 
upon the great audience of young people which, on the Wednes- 
day afternoons of summer, fills the Old South Meeting-house, 
will quickly satisfy themselves whether American history taught 
by such lectures is interesting. 

For the Old South lectures are summer lectures — vacation 
lectures — given at three o'clock on Wednesday afternoons. 
They begin when the graduation exercises and the Fourth of 
July are well behind, in the last or next to the last week in July. 
Our lectures are not meant for idlers. We do not aim to 
entertain a crowd of children for an hour in a desultory fashion. 
Our lecturers do not talk baby talk. The Old South Work is a 
serious educational work. Its programs are careful and se- 
quential, making demands upon the hearers. It assumes that 
the young people who come are students, or want to be ; and, 
by consistently assuming it, it makes them so. Dr. Hale, who 
has addressed these Old South audiences oftener, perhaps, than 
anybody else, remarked at the opening of a recent course upon 
the notable development in the character of the audiences in 
these years of the work. It is no longer safe, he said, to say 
1603 at the Old South, when you ought to say 1602. 

The first regular course of Old South Lectures for Young 
People was in 1883 ; although there had of course been much 
Old South work of various kinds done before that. There have 
therefore been seventeen annual courses. The subjects of these 
courses are as follows : — 

" Early Massachusetts History," " The Makers of Boston," " The War for 
the Union," "The War for Independence," "The Birth of the Nation," 
"The Story of the Centuries," "America and France," " The American 
Indians," "The New Birth of the World," "The Discovery of America," 
"The Opening of the West," "The Founders of New England," "The 
Puritans in Old England," " The American Historians," " The Anti-slavery 
Struggle," " The Old World in the New," " The Life and Influence of 
Washington." 

The complete programs of all these courses, giving the sub- 
jects of the several lectures, together with the subjects of the 
leaflets printed in connection, have been published in a special 
circular, which can be obtained at the Old South. A thought 



8 

always with us in laying out our programs is, as has been said, 
the thought that the program which serves us well may also 
serve others well; and this makes them the more carefully 
considered. We work in the hope and expectation that our 
lectures may be repeated, if not by our lecturers, then by 
others taking the same subjects, in other places, and that with 
the lectures may go our leaflets also. The eight leaflets for 
1899, accompanying the eight Washington lectures, were: — 

Washington's Account of the Army at Cambridge in 1775; Washing- 
ton's Letters on the Constitution ; Washington's Inaugurals ; Washing- 
ton's Letter to Benjamin Harrison in 1784; Washington's Words on a 
National University ; Letters of Washington and Lafayette ; Washington's 
Farewell Address ; Henry Lee's Funeral Oration on Washington. 

The eight leaflets accompanying similarly the lectures on 
*' The Founders of New England," noticed above, were : — 

Bradford's Memoir of Elder Brewster ; Governor Bradford's First Dia- 
logue; Winthrop's Conclusions for the Plantation in New England; New 
England's First Fruits, 1643 John Eliot's Indian Grammar Begun; John 
Cotton's " God's Promise to His Plantation " ; Letters of Roger Williams 
to Winthrop ; Hooker's Way of the Churches of New England. 

The Old South Leaflets are prepared primarily for circula- 
tion among the young people attending the Old South lectures. 
The subjects of the leaflets are usually immediately related to 
the subjects of the lectures. They are meant to supplement 
the lectures and stimulate reading and inquiry among the 
young people. They are made up, for the most part," from 
original papers of the periods treated in the lectures, in the 
hope to make the men and the life of those periods more clear 
and real. Careful historical notes and references to the best 
books on the subjects are added, the leaflets usually consisting 
of about twenty pages. A single instance more will sufiice to 
show the relation of the leaflets to the lectures. The year 
1889, being the centennial both of the beginning of our own 
Federal government and of the French Revolution, the lectures 
for the year, under the general title of "America and France," 
were devoted entirely to subjects in which the history of 
America is related to that of France, as follows : — 

'* Champlain, the Founder of Quebec," " La Salle and the French in the 
Great West," "The Jesuit Missionaries in America," " Wolfe and Mont- 
calm : the Struggle of England and France for the Continent," " Franklin 
in France," " The Friendship of Washington and Lafayette," " Thomas 



Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase," "The Year 1789." The corres- 
ponding leaflets were as follows : Verrazzano's Account of his Voyage to 
America; Marquette's Account of his Discovery of the Mississippi; Mr. 
Parkman's Histories ; The Capture of Quebec, from Parkman's " Conspi- 
racy of Pontiac " ; Selections from Franklin's Letters from France ; Let- 
ters of Washington and Lafayette; The Declaration of Independence; 
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789. 

The Old South Leaflets gradually began to attract the atten- 
tion of teachers of history outside of Boston ; and ten years 
ago the publication of a general series was begun, to meet 
the needs of schools and colleges and literary societies and 
classes. Every teacher of history from Maine to California 
now knows, we think, of the Old South Leaflets. They are 
sold at a price just covering the cost, five cents a copy, or four 
dollars for a hundred copies, the aim being to bring them 
within easy reach of everybody, especially of schools and 
of those wishing to circulate them in connection with lectures, 
as at the Old South. This series of Old South Leaflets now 
numbers a hundred. Many may like to see their subjects : — 

I. The Constitution of the United States. 2. The Articles of Con- 
federation. 3. The Declaration of Independence. 4. Washington's Fare- 
well Address. 5. Magna Charta. 6. Vane's " HeaUng Question." • 7. 
Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629. 8. Fundamental Orders of Con- 
necticut, 1638. 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754. 10. Washington's 
Inaugurals. 11. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation. 
12. The Federalist, Nos. i and 2. 13. The Ordinance of 1787. 14. The 
Constitution of Ohio. 15. Washington's Circular Letter to the Governors 
of the States, 1783. 16. Washington's Letter to Benjamin Harrison; 1784. 
17. Verrazzano's Voyage, 1524. 18. The Constitution of Switzerland. 
19. The Bill of Rights, 1689. 20. Coronado's Letter to Mendoza, 1540. 
21. Eliot's Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel among the Ind- 
ians, 1670. 22. Wheelock's Narrative of the Rise of the Indian School 
at Lebanon, Conn., 1762. 23. The Petition of Rights, 1628. 24. The 
Grand Remonstrance. 25- The Scottish National Covenants. 26. The 
Agreement of the People. 27. The Instrument of Government. 28. 
Cromwell's First Speech to his Parliament. 29. The Discovery of 
America, from the " Life of Columbus," by his son, Ferdinand Columbus. 
30. Strabo's Introduction to Geography. 31. The Voyages to Vinland, 
from the Saga of Eric the Red. 32. Marco Polo's Account of Japan and 
Java. ^;^. Columbus's Letter to Gabriel Sanchez, describing ihe First 
Voyage and Discovery. 34. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his First 
Voyage. 35. Cortes's Account of the City of Mexico. 36. The Death of 
De Soto, from the "Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas." 37. Early 
Notices of the Voyages of the Cabots. 38. Richard Henry Lee's Funeral 
Oration on Washington. 39. Extract from Cabeza De Vaca's Relation of 
his Journey across Texas and New Mexico in 1535. 40. Manasseh Cut- 
ler's Description of Ohio in 1787. 41. Extract from Washington's Journal 



lO 

of his Tour to the Ohio River in 1770. 42. General Garfield's Address 
on the Organization of the North-west Territory and the Settlement of the 
Western Reserve. 43. George Rogers Clark's Account of his Capture of 
Vincennes. 44. Jefferson's Life of Captain Meriwether Lewis. 45. Fre- 
mont's Account of the First Ascent of Fremont's Peak. 46. Marquette's 
Account of his Explorations. 47. Washington's Account of the Army at 
Cambridge, 1775. 48. Bradford's Memoir of Elder Brewster. 49. Brad- 
ford's First Dialogue. 50, Winthrop's " Conclusions for the Plantation in 
New England." 51. " New England's First Fruits," 1643. S^- John 
Eliot's " Indian Grammar l^egun." 53. John Cotton's " God's Promise to 
his Plantation." 54. Letters of Roger Williams to Winthrop. 55. 
Thomas Hooker's " Way of the Churches of New England." 56. The 
Monroe Doctrine : President Monroe's Message of 1823, 57. The English 
Bible, selections from the various versions. 58. Hooper's Letters to 
BuUinger. 59. Sir John Eliot's " Apology for Socrates." 60. Ship-money 
Papers. 61. Pym's Speech against Strafford. 62. Cromwell's Second 
Speech. 63. Milton's "A Free Commonwealth." 64. Sir Henry Vane's 
Defence. 65. Washington's Addresses to the Churches. 66. Winthrop's 
" Little Speech " on Liberty. 67. Cotton Mather's " Bostonian Ebenezer," 
from the " Magnalia." 68. Governor Hutchinson's Account of the Boston 
Tea Party. 69. Adrian Van der Donck's Description of New Nether- 
lands in 1655. 7°- The Debate in the Constitutional Convention on the 
Rules of Suffrage in Congress. 71. Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand 
and Isabella, on his Second Voyage. 72. The Dutch Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in 1581. 73. Captain John Knox's Account of the Battle of 
Quebec. 74. Hamilton's Report on the Coinage. 75. William Penn's 
Plan for the Peace of Europe. 76. Washington's Words on a National 
University. 77. Cotton Mather's Lives of Bradford and Winthrop. 78. 
The First Number of T/ie Liberator. 79. Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of 
Garrison. 80, Theodore Parker's Address on the Dangers from Slavery. 
81. Whittier's Account of the Anti-slavery Convention of 1833. 82. Mrs. 
Stowe's Story of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 83. Sumner's Speech on the 
Crime against Kansas. 84. The Words of John Brown. 85. The First 
Lincoln and Douglas Debate. 86. Washington's Account of his Capture 
of Boston. 87. The Manners and Customs of the Indians, from Morton's 
" New English Canaan." 88. The Beginning of King Philip's War, from 
Hubbard's History of Philip's War, 1677. 89. Account of the Founding 
of St. Augustine, by Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales. 90. Amerigo 
Vespucci's Account of his Third Voyage. 91. Champlain's Account of 
the Founding of Quebec. 92, Barlowe's Account of the First Voyage to 
Roanoke. 93. Parker's Account of the Settlement of Londonderry, N.H. 
94. Juet's Account of the Discovery of the Hudson River. 95. Pastorius's 
Description of Pennsylvania, 1700. 96. Acrelius's Account of the Found- 
ing of New Sweden. 97. Lafayette in the American Revolution. 98. 
Letters of Washington and Lafayette. 99. Washington's Letters on the 
Constitution. 100. Robert Browne's " Reformation without Tarrving for 
Any." 

These leaflets are also furnished in bound volumes, each vol- 
ume containing twenty-five leaflets, the one hundred leaflets 
already published making four volumes. These volumes, sold for 
$1.50 each, are the means of carrying the leaflets to multitudes 



II 

of libraries all over the country. All persons wishing to pre- 
serve the leaflets for reference will find this form the best. 
Each annual series of eight leaflets, illustrating the lecture sub- 
jects of the year, is bound in a neat paper cover, and furnished 
for fifty cents ; and these little collections well serve clubs and 
classes studying these special subjects. 

The virtue of the Old South Leaflets is that they bring stu- 
dents into first-hand instead of second-hand touch with history. 
That, indeed, may describe the Old South Work altogether. It 
has been an effort to bring the young people of Boston and 
America into original relations with history; and it has been,, 
we think it may properly be said, the foremost popular effort 
of the kind in the country. This is why it has won the atten- 
tion and commendation, so gratifying to us, of the educators of 
rhe country. Our joy in the Old South Work has been the joy 
of being pioneers and the joy of knowing that we were pioneers 
in the right direction. We should have known this if others 
had not known it ; but we do not deny that the warm words of 
the historical scholars and teachers of the country have been 
very grateful and very helpful to us. The Old South Work is 
" in exactly the right direction," John Fiske has said. It is a 
pleasant thing to remember that it was at Mrs. Hemenway's 
instance and at her strong solicitation that Mr. Fiske first 
turned his efforts to the field of American history ; and almost 
everything that appeared in the earlier volumes of his magnifi- 
cent series of historical works was first given in the form of 
lectures at the Old South. " To Mary Hemenway, in recogni- 
tion of the rare foresight and public spirit which saved from 
destruction one of the noblest historical buildings in America,, 
and made it a centre for the teaching of American history and 
the principles of good citizenship," is the dedication of the 
volume upon " The American Revolution." In this connection, 
and for the sake of the information which it gives, may be 
quoted the following words from the preface to Professor 
James K. Hosmer's Life of Thomas Hutchinson: "This 
book, like the lives of Samuel Adams and young Sir Henry 
Vane and the ' Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom,' has 
been written for the late lamented Mrs. Mary Hemenway, — a 
carrying out of her Old South work. That noble woman's can- 
dor was as remarkable as her patriotic enthusiasm. While 
stimulating in every way she could interest in and love for our 
country and the men who brought it into being, she had a kind 



12 

thought for the foe who honestly stood against them, and she 
desired to have justice done the victim as well as to have 
praise rendered the victors." In Mr. Fiske's school his- 
tory of the United States, perhaps the most popular history in 
the schools, the Old South Leaflets are constantly commended 
for use in connection. " The publication of these leaflets," he 
says, " is sure to have a most happy effect in awakening gen- 
eral interest, on the part of young students, in original docu- 
ments." To the same effect writes Mr. Montgomery, whose 
text-books in history are so widely used in the schools. James 
MacAlister, the president of the Drexel Institute in Philadel- 
phia, writes, '' I regard the Old South Work as one of the most 
important educational movements of recent times." Mr. Her- 
bert Welsh, of Philadelphia, wrote a special tract about the 
Old South Work, and spread it broadcast in Philadelphia. He 
had been deeply impressed by the Old South Work when he 
came to lecture for us a little while before. " The secret of the 
success of the Old South plan," he said, " is that it teaches 
history from a living and most practical standpoint. It is the 
application of the best that our past has given to the brain and 
heart of the youth of the present." " Why should not this 
simple and effective plan be made use of in Philadelphia ? " 
he asked ; and the next year Old South Work was inaugurated 
in Philadelphia, the lectures to the young people being given 
in the Old State House, where the Declaration of Independence 
was signed and the Constitution framed. President Andrews 
of Brown University, Professor Herbert Adams of Johns Hop- 
kins, Professor Hart of Harvard, Professor Woodrow Wilson. Mr. 
Horace E. Scudder and others have written in the same warm 
way. Mr. Tetlow, the master of the Boston Girls' High School, 
and masters all over the country unite in welcoming the leaflets. 
"To teach history by the study of original documents," writes 
one, " has been the dream of the best instructors ; but this 
dream may now be reaUzed through the inexpensive form in 
which these originals are presented." " The educational 
world," wTites Miss Coman, the professor of history at Welles- 
ley College, " is coming to recognize the value of teaching his- 
tory, even to young people, from the original records rather 
than from accounts at second or third hand. I rejoice that 
these documents have been made accessible to the children of 
our public schools." " We may talk about such documents all 
we please," says Mr. Huling, the master of the Cambridge 



13 

High School, " and Uttle good will be done ; but, when the pupil 
reads one of these for himself, he is indeed a dull fellow if he 
does not carry away a definite impression of its place in his- 
tory." " I wish," writes Mr. Belfield, the principal of the Chi- 
cago Manual Training School, who has done more than anybody 
else to promote the Old South movement in the West, " that 
the series could be brought to the attention of every school 
superintendent, high school principal, and teacher of United 
States history in the country." "The Old South Leaflets," 
says Professor Folwell, the professor of history in the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota, " ought to be scattered by miUions of copies 
all over our country." 

It is a satisfaction to be able to quote such words from such 
persons, for they are a great re-enforcement of our commenda- 
tion of this missionary work in good citizenship to the atten- 
tion of the country. For that is what the Old South Work is, 
— a missionary work in good citizenship ; and, feeling it to be 
that, we " commend ourselves." We wish that societies of 
3'oung men and women might be organized in a thousand 
places for historical and political studies, and that our Old South 
Leaflets might prove of as much service to these as they are 
proving to our Old South audiences and to the schools. 

The Old South summer lectures are chiefly for the older boys 
and girls in the schools, the children in the high schools and 
the upper grammar grades. For the younger children we have 
each spring and autumn a " Children's Hour " — a name de- 
scending from the earliest days of the Old South work, when 
such faithful service was rendered by Miss Alice Baker and 
Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells. The " Children's Hour " is filled by 
varied, simple and picturesque talks and by music. The autumn 
^' Hour" in 1899, the Washington year, had three speeches on 
the three visits of Washington to Boston and several songs by 
a great chorus of the children, including the ode composed 
and sung on the occasion of Washington's visit in 1789. 

The Old South work aims to do more than serve the pupils 
of the Boston schools; it aims also to serve the teachers. 
There have been few years since the Old South Meeting-house 
was saved when some course of lectures has not been provided 
especially for the teachers. Mr. Fiske's courses in many suc- 
cessive years were chiefly for the teachers of the city. Dr. 
William T. Harris and others have similarly addressed the 
teachers. Rev. Edward G. Porter's lectures upon Old Boston, 



14 

first given at the North End in connection with a local work 
carried on by the directors of the Old South work for several 
seasons in that section of the city, were of peculiar interest. 
In the spring of 1899, Professor Albert B. Hart delivered a 
course on '' The Spaniard and the Anglo-Saxon in America." 

The Old South work is not simply a means of doing some- 
thing for the young people of Boston : it is also a means of 
getting something from them and setting them to work for 
themselves. Every year prizes are offered to the graduates of 
the Boston high schools, graduates of the current year and the 
preceding year, for the best essays on subjects in American 
history. Two subjects are proposed each year ; and two prizes 
are awarded for each subject, the first prizes being $40, and 
the second $25. The subjects are announced in June, just as 
the schools close ; and the essays must be submitted in the 
following January. The prizes are always announced at the 
Washington's Birthday celebration. The subjects proposed 
each year for the essays are always closely related to the gen- 
eral subject of the lectures for the year, our aim being to make 
the entire work for the year unified and articulate, each part of 
it helping the rest. Thus the subjects for the essays for the 
year when the lectures were devoted to " The Founders of New 
England" were : — 

I. "The Relations of the Founders of New England to the Univer- 
sities of Cambridge and Oxford"; 2. "The Fundamental Orders of Con- 
necticut, and their Place in the History of Written Constitutions." 

The subjects for 1899, the Washington year, were : — 

I. "The American Revolution under Washington and the English Rev- 
olution under Cromwell : Compare their Causes, Aims, and Results." 2. 
" Washington's Plan for a National University : The Argument for it 
a Hundred Years Ago and the Argument To-day." 

I think that many would be surprised at the thoroughness 
and general excellence of many of these essays, written by 
pupils just out of our high schools. The first-prize essay for 
1 88 1, on "The Policy of the Early Colonists of Massachusetts 
toward Quakers and Others whom they regarded as Intru- 
ders," by Henry L. Southwick, and one of the first-prize essays 
for 1889, on "Washington's Interest in Education," by Miss 
Carolyn C. Stecher, have been printed, and can be procured 
at the Old South Meeting-house. Another of the prize essays 



15 

on "Washington's Interest in Education," by Miss Julia K. 
Ordway, was published in the N'ew Engla7id Magazine for 
May, 1890; one of the first-prize essays for 1890, on " Philip, 
Pontiac, and Tecumseh," by Miss Carolyn C. Stecher, ap- 
peared in the New England Magazme for September, 1891; 
■one of the first-prize essays for 1891, on "Marco Polo's Ex- 
plorations in Asia and their Influence upon Columbus," Y*" 
Miss Helen P. Margesson, in the Neiv England Afagazine for 
August, 1892; one for 1893, on "The Part of Massachusetts 
Men in the Ordinance of 1787," by Miss Elizabeth H. Tetlow, 
in March, 1895; and one for 1898, on "The Struggle of 
France and England for North America," by Miss Caroline 
B. Shaw, in January, 1900. The New England Magazme^ 
w^hich is devoted pre-eminently to matters relating to American 
history and good citizenship, has from the time of its found- 
ing, ten years ago, made itself an organ of the Old South 
Work, publishing many of the Old South essays and lectures, 
and always noticing in its Editor's Table everything relating to 
the progress of the movement. 

The young people who have competed for these Old South 
prizes are naturally among the best students of history in their 
successive years in the Boston high schools. They now number 
nearly two hundred ; and several years ago they formed them- 
selves into an Old South Historical Society. Many of the Old 
South essayists have of course gone on into college, and 
many are now scattered over the country ; but more than half 
of their number, not a few of them teachers in the schools, are 
to-day within sound of the Old South bell ; and the monthly 
meetings of the society are most interesting. No young people's 
society in the country is doing better historical work. There 
are always some careful historical papers read by members 
at the meetings, and there is discussion. There are fre- 
quently fresh voices from the outside, some of the most emi- 
nent scholars of the country having been guests of the society. 
The present president, Mr. Joseph Parker Warren, is a Harvard 
instructor; and the secretary. Miss Margesson, is a Wellesley 
graduate. The society is rapidly becoming an efficient factor in 
the general Old South work. It has various active committees, 
— a Lecture Committee, an Essay Committee, an Outlook Com- 
mittee and others, — and its leading spirits are ambitious for ever 
larger service. The members of the Lecture Committee assist 
in the distribution of tickets to the schools and in enlisting the in- 



i6 

terest of young people in the lectures. The members of the Essay- 
Committee similarly devote themselves to enlisting the interest 
of the high schools in the essays ; they also read the essays 
submitted each year, not for the sake of adjudging the award of 
prizes, — that is in other hands, — but that there may always be 
in the society scholarly members thoroughly cognizant of the 
character of the work being done and of the varying capacity 
of the new members entering the society. The office of the 
Outlook Committee is to keep itself informed and to keep the 
society informed of all important efforts at home and abroad 
for the historical and political education of young people. It 
watches the newspapers, it watches the magazines, it watches the 
schools. It reports anything it finds said about the Old South 
Work and about its extension anywhere. At the next meeting, 
I suppose, it wdll tell the society about any new school history 
and about any new text-books in civil government which have 
appeared. I hope it will tell how much better most of the 
series of historical readers published in England for the use 
of the schools are than the similar books which we have in 
America. It is sure to say something about the remarkable 
growth of work like its own among our young people ; and it is 
sure to report such utterances as those of President Clarke and 
other leaders of the Christian Endeavor movement upon the 
importance of rousing a more definite interest in politics and 
greater devotion to the duties of citizenship among the young 
people in that great organization. Especially has it noticed in 
this time the historical pilgrimage, that interesting educa- 
tional movement which suddenly appeared half a dozen years 
ago full grown, — a movement which would have enlisted so 
warmly the sympathies of Mrs. Hemenvv^ay, who felt, as almost 
nobody else ever felt, the immense educational power of his- 
torical associations. It has doubtless told the society what 
Mr. Stead has written about historical pilgrimages in England, 
and Mr. Powell and Dr. Shaw and others in America. 

The historical pilgrimage arranged and conducted by mem- 
bers of the University Extension Society of Philadelphia in the 
summer of 1894 commanded much attention from the news- 
papers and from the educational public. It was worthy of 
attention. For a large body of thoughtful men and women from 
twenty states to unite in a pilgrimage to our historic New 
England places was something to be noted as a pregnant and 
potential new educational factor ; and from that time the his- 



torical pilgrimage became a distinct instrument, and a most 
useful one, in our life. It was noteworthy, also, as an index 
of the development of interest in American history in twenty 
years ; for an enterprise like this would not have been dreamed 
of twenty years before. It was fitting that this first band of 
American historical pilgrims should be received and welcomed 
publicly in Boston at the Old South Meeting-house ; for no 
other place in these years has been the centre of such earnest 
and fruitful efforts for the development of this popular his- 
torical interest. 

In 1896 the Old South Historical Society took up the 
matter of historical pilgrimages practically for itself. It adopted 
the historical pilgrimage as a regular feature of its yearly pro- 
gram, and it has continued it with increasing and noteworthy 
success. The society may freely claim that no other historical 
pilgrimages in the country are so carefully prepared for and so 
well carried out, with such distinct educational results, as its 
own. There have now (1899) been four of these annual 
pilgrimages, — the first to old Rutland, Mass., " the 
Cradle of Ohio " ; the second to the homes of Whittier by the 
Merrimack ; the third to the King Philip Country, — Mount 
Hope, on Narragansett Bay ; and the fourth to Plymouth. A 
full day is given to the pilgrimage. The trip itself is always 
delightful ; a luncheon is served at mid-day ; and this is followed 
by half a dozen bright speeches. The expenses are kept very 
low. Invitation is given to all young people or others who 
wish to join ; and the later pilgrimages have been made by great 
parties of six hundred people. Careful circulars and pam- 
phlets are prepared well in advance, outlining the history con- 
nected with the places and discussing the best books ; and the 
historical pilgrimage becomes one of the most educative events 
of the Old South year, as well as one of the most joyful. In 
addition to the important annual pilgrimage, the members of 
the society themselves make occasional pilgrimages to inter- 
esting historical places near Boston. One of the latest of 
these was to Brook Farm, and there was much reading in con- 
nection about the interesting socialistic experiment identified 
with that famous place. 

An idea of the serious and scholarly work being done by 
these splendid young people can best be given by inserting 
the program of the present winter's work, 1899-1900. The 
general subject chosen for study is " Economic and Social 



Forces in Massachusetts to 1800," and the outline for the ten 
monthly meetings is as follows : — 

I. September 26. "The Country and the People." Papers: i. The 
Indian Tribes. 2. The Physical Geography of Massachusetts and its 
Effects upon the People. 3. The European Immigrants. 

II. October 10. "Productive Industries." Papers: i. The Fisheries. 

2. Agriculture. 3. Manufactures. 

III. November 14. "Commerce and Communication." Papers: 
I. Transportation and Communication. 2. General Survey of Massachu- 
setts Commerce. 3. Trade with Africa and the Indies (including the 
Slave-trade). 4. The Navigation Acts and their Influence upon Massa- 
chusetts Commerce. 

IV. December 12. "The Currency of Early Massachusetts." Stere- 
opticon lecture by Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis. 

V. January 9. " Social Life." Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz will be the guest 
of the evening, speaking upon the home life of the early Massachusetts set- 
tlers. Papers: I. Homes and Home Life. 2. Sports and Amusements. 

3. Social Intercourse. 4. The Influence of the Clergy and of the Govern- 
ment. 

VL " The Influence of Economic and Social Conditions upon Institu- 
tions.' February 13. "The Church." Papers: i. History of Congrega- 
tionalism. 2. Church and State. 3. Sectarian Controversies and Perse- 
cutions. 4. Religious Life of the People. March 13. "The Govern- 
ment." Mr. William B. Weeden will be the guest of the evening, speaking 
of the influence of social and economic forces upon the government in 
early New England. Papers : i. Town Government. 2. The General 
Court and the Colonial Magistrates. 3. The Royal Governor and the 
Influence of the Crown. 

VII. April 10. "Law and its Administration." Papers: i. The 
Common Law in America. 2. Colonial Judicature of Massachusetts. 
3. Colonial Legislation of Massachusetts. 

VIII. May 8. "Intellectual Life." Papers: i. Schools and Col- 
leges. 2. Learned Professions. 3. Music and the Fine Arts. 

IX. June 12. " Literature." Mr. Edwin D. Mead will be the guest of 
the evening, speaking upon the intellectual life of Massachusetts during 
the first two centuries of her history. Papers: i. Descriptive and Histori- 
cal Writings. 2. Ecclesiastical Works. 3. The Literature of the Revolu- 
tion. 4. Newspapers and other Reading Matter. 

This program is followed in the society's circular by several 
pages of bibliography, most thoroughly and discriminatingly 
compiled. The outline altogether would do credit to any his- 
torical society in the land, and it is entirely the work of the 
young people themselves. The subject studied with similar 
thoroughness the year before was " The History of the Spanish 
Power in America ; " and preceding years had been devoted to 
"The Anti-slavery Struggle " and " The Heritage of Slavery." 
The young people are constantly lending a hand to other young 



^9 

people needing assistance in historical and political studies. 
The North End Union, the South End House and Denison 
House have all had their help ; and a dozen of them carried 
on classes for an entire season at the Marcella Street Home. 

Many societies of young people all over the country might 
well take up such historical studies as those in which the Old 
South Historical Society interests itself. They should also 
interest themselves in studies directly political and social. We 
have in Boston a Good Citizenship Society. This is not a 
part of the Old South Work ; but it is a society in whose efforts 
some of us who have the Old South Work at heart have been 
deeply interested, and its lectures were long given at the Old 
South Meeting-house. The lectures have dealt with such sub- 
jects as Qualifications for Citizenship, Municipal Reform, the 
Reform of the Newspaper, the Revival of Public Spirit in our 
Country Towns, and the Better Organization of the World. One 
season the lectures were upon "A More Beautiful Public Life," 
the several subjects being: "The Lessons of the W^hite City," 
"Boards of Beauty," "Municipal Art," "Art in the Public 
Schools," "Art Museums and the People," and "Boston, the 
City of God." These subjects, and such as these, young men 
and women might take up in their societies, with great benefit 
to themselves and to their communities. Our young people 
should train themselves also in the organization and procedure 
of our local and general government, as presented in the text- 
books on civil government now happily becoming so common 
in the schools. The young men in one of our colleges have 
a House of Commons : in another college — a young women's 
college — they have a House of Representative^. Our Old 
South Historical Society has talked of organizing a Town 
Meeting, for the discussion of public questions and for school- 
ing in legislative methods. Why should not such Town Meet- 
ings be common among our young people .'* 

Why, too, will not our young people everywhere, as a part of 
their service for good citizenship, engage in a crusade in behalf 
of better music .-^ Good music is a great educator. Bad music 
is debilitating and debasing. That was a wise man whom old 
Fletcher quotes as saying, " Let me make the songs of a 
people, and I care not who makes the laws." How many of 
the young men and women in the high schools have read what 
Plato says about strong, pure music in education, in his book 
on " The Laws " ? Indeed, it is to be feared that not all the 



20 

teachers have read it. I wish that a hundred clubs or classes 
of young people would read Plato's " Laws " next winter, and 
his " Republic" the next, and then Aristotle's " Politics." Do 
not think they are hard, dull books. They are fresh, fascinat- 
ing books, and seem almost as modern, in all their discussions 
of socialism, education and the rest, as the last magazine, — 
only they are ^o much better and more fruitful than the maga- 
zine ! They make us ashamed of ourselves, — these great Greek 
thinkers, — their preaching is so much better than our practice ; 
but it is a good thing to be made ashamed of ourselves some- 
times, and we need it very much here in America in the matter 
of music. We are suffering in our homes, in our schools, in 
our churches, our theatres, everywhere, from music of the 
trashiest and most vulgar character; and this is said w'ith no 
failure to recognize the great amount of splendid work that is 
being done. Let us go to school to Plato ; let us go to school 
to Germany and England. We aim to do something in behalf 
of this reform at the Old South. Our large choruses from the 
public schools at many of our celebrations have sung w^ell. 
At our last " Children's Hour," as already mentioned, 
two hundred girls from the Wells School, assisted by good 
soloists, rendered admirably the old Ode composed and sung 
when President Washington was received in Boston, in 1789. 
But we wish to do a real educational work, not only as touching 
patriotic music strictly, but as touching better music for the 
people generally. It was an " Old South boy," the winner of 
one of the early Old South prizes, who two or three years ago 
conceived and organized the magnificent series of public organ 
recitals in Boston, given under the auspices of the Twentieth 
Century Club, which attracted so much attention throughout 
the country, encouraging similar efforts in other cities, and 
giving impetus to the interest which has resulted in the Boston 
municipal concerts. One day we shall have an Old South 
Chorus. We hope some time to have a good organ at the Old 
South, as we hope to have the old meeting-house altogether in 
much better shape in a near future than in the last years. If 
in some future the ghosts of some of the great Greeks stroll 
into the Old South Meeting-house, we hope they may find it 
the centre of influences in behalf of pure and inspiring music 
which w^ill be as gratifying to them as the devotion to the 
State which is inculcated there would surely be. 

Old South Mcctiug-JwiisCy Boston, jSgg. 



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